The Missing $4.1 Bn from the National Development Fund

Rouhani's cabinet members at first flatly and explicitly denied the recent accusations by Iran's Majlis over the illegal withdrawal of $4.1 Bn from the National Development Fund. The row between the two bodies got so heated up that each side threatened the other with legal action.

What further added to the confusion and unclarity of the situation was the different and at times, conflicting statements by two of Iran's supervisory bodies, the Audit Institution  and the General Inspection Organisation.

The threats of legal action however, now seem to have subsided to reach a compromise instead, with the government no longer denying the withdrawal, as it did so explicitly to begin with, but claiming that the withdrawal from the fund did take place although it was not illegal. 

The government spokespersons now use words like"secret" and "special" to justify the legalities of the withdrawal without giving more specific details.

It is clear for Iran observers however that the government finances, after the falling price of oil, are in deep trouble. The entire budget of Rouhani's administration was based on two assumptions that sanctions will be lifted and the oil price will remain above $100 per barrel.

This "secret" and "special" withdrawal from the National Development Fund to make ends meet follows other recent unprecedented measures by the government to bring in much needed cash, such as the %30 rise in price of bread, conscripts being able to buy their National Service and IRGC affiliated companies including the holdings and foundations under the Supreme Leader's control having to pay taxes.

For more than three decades, the Islamic Republic's closed and uncompetitive economy has managed to survive on the huge windfalls of petro-Dollars, now it seems finally the good old days are over and unless some drastic changes take place, Iran's rule of theocracy  will face a similar collapse to that of the Soviet Union.

For they will open the doors of deceit and hypocrisy instead

The compulsory fake cries of Rouhani's cabinet members as he recites a eulogy for Ashura.

"Lord, do not admire them for closing down the wine taverns/ For they will open the doors of deceit and hypocrisy instead"

The Special Ray Produced by Men That Makes Women Age Quickly

On the same day that the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hasan Rouhani, was portraying his regime as a beacon of moderation and progress in the region, the following program was broadcast from Iran State TV:

The program guest and her daughter were shown wearing the full neghab and in order to convince other Iranian women to do the same, they justified the benefits of wearing a neghab by saying that “recent scientific medical progress has proved men’s eyes produce a special ray which when encounters a woman’s face, causes early ageing of the woman’s face”

So there you go, if women want to look young, they should forget all other cosmetic advice and fully cover their face. May I also add that to further prolong their youthful looks, they should ask their husband to wear a blindfold.

Rouhani as the Nobel Peace Prize Candidate

The nomination of Hassan Rouhani as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Guardian's Saeed Kamali-Dehghan, reminded me of the nomination of Ayatollah Khalkhali for the Iranian Majlis elections, by Iran's Soviet puppet Communist Party (Tudeh Party),  after the 1979 revolution.

More than three decades ago, the Tudeh Party, Iran's Soviet backed Communist Party, or as the party leaders liked to refer to their outfit in their publications, "Iran Workers Leading Progressive Party", nominated the mad Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali as one of their parliamentary candidates for his "uncompromising stand against US imperialism".

Khalkhali was a mad henchman, who strangled kittens in his youth as a hobby. Ayatollah Khomeini appointed Khalkhali as his first Revolutionary Chief of Justice in 1979. Khalkhali quickly gained notoriety with his summary executions, Haj Mehdi Araghi, a bazaar merchant and the first governor of Qasr prison after the 1979 revolution, complained that "this guy [Khalkhali] executes people first and then makes up their charges" and when others also criticised Khalkhali's swift executions and suggested to him that he may be killing innocents, Khalkhali replied without showing any emotion "If they are innocent, then they will go to heaven, so what's the problem?".

One of Khalkhali's victims was a family friend who was arrested on his way to work, where an anti-government demonstration had taken place nearby. The family friend had nothing to do with the demonstration, his second child was born a few days earlier and all he thought about was raising his children.  He was killed without a trial, because Khalkhali had a quota to kill 100 people that day.

Khalkhali wrote in his memoirs, how he shot a 16 year old boy in cold blood. He said he was talking in the car with a friend and they were discussing how these counter-revolutionary groups should be dealt with; when right in the middle of their discussions, he saw a young teenager selling a Leftist newspaper. Khalkhali then pulled out his revolver and shot the boy dead, while calmly turning to his friend laughing and saying "thats how they should be dealt with". Such was the "progressive" anti-imperialist nature of the candidate nominated by "Iran Workers Leading Progressive Party"!

Three decades after, Saeed Kamali-Dehghan, a refugee Leftist journalist from the Islamic Republic, has nominated Hasan Rouhani for the Nobel Peace Prize candidate. The spirit of the Tudeh Party lives on in many of Iran's Leftist "intellectuals".

Saeed Kamali-Dehghan is also responsible for propagating the false story of a haemophiliac boy dying in Iran because of the medicine shortages that were caused by the sanctions.